Notice2022-27891
Information Collection; National Woodland Owner Survey
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
December 22, 2022
Issuing agencies
Agriculture DepartmentForest Service
Abstract
In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Forest Service is seeking comments from all interested individuals and organizations on the revision of the National Woodland Owner Survey information collection.
Full Text
<html>
<head>
<title>Federal Register, Volume 87 Issue 245 (Thursday, December 22, 2022)</title>
</head>
<body><pre>
[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 245 (Thursday, December 22, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 78634-78635]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2022-27891]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Forest Service
Information Collection; National Woodland Owner Survey
AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice; request for comment.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the
Forest Service is seeking comments from all interested individuals and
organizations on the revision of the National Woodland Owner Survey
information collection.
DATES: Comments must be received in writing on or before February 21,
2023 to be assured of consideration. Comments received after that date
will be considered to the extent practicable.
ADDRESSES: Comments concerning this notice should be addressed to Brett
Butler, USDA Forest Service, 160 Holdsworth Way, Amherst, MA 01003.
Comments also may be submitted by email to: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#bbd9c9decfcf95d9cecfd7dec989fbcec8dfda95dcd4cd"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="e78595829393c98592938b8295d5a792948386c9808891">[email protected]</span></a>.
Comments submitted in response to this notice may be made available
to the public through relevant websites and upon request. For this
reason, please do not include in your comments information of a
confidential nature, such as sensitive personal information or
proprietary information. If you send an email comment, your email
address will be automatically captured and included as part of the
comment that is placed in the public docket and made available on the
internet. Please note that responses to this public comment request
containing any routine notice about the confidentiality of the
communication will be treated as public comments that may be made
available to the public notwithstanding the inclusion of the routine
notice.
The public may inspect the draft supporting statement and/or
comments received at 160 Holdsworth Way, Room 201, Amherst, MA 01003
during normal business hours. Visitors are encouraged to call ahead to
413-545-1387 to facilitate entry to the building. The public may
request an electronic copy of the draft supporting statement and/or any
comments received be sent via return email. Requests should be emailed
to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#dbb9a9beafaff5b9aeafb7bea9e99baea8bfbaf5bcb4ad"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="0466766170702a6671706861763644717760652a636b72">[email protected]</span></a>.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Brett Butler, Northern Research
Station, 413-545-1387. Individuals who use telecommunication devices
for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal Information Relay Service
(FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339 twenty-four hours a day, every day of the
year, including holidays.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: National Woodland Owner Survey.
OMB Number: 0596-0078.
Type of Request: Revision.
Abstract: There are an estimated 704 million acres of forestland
across the United States, excluding interior Alaska. Of this
forestland, over half is owned by millions of corporations, families,
individuals, and other private groups with the remaining managed by
over a thousand different federal, state, and local government agencies
and tribal organizations. Understanding the attitudes and behaviors of
the owners and managers of the forestland is critical for understanding
the current and future state of the nation's forests. The Forest
Service conducts the National Woodland Owner Survey (NWOS) to increase
our understanding of:
<bullet> Who owns and manages the forestland of the United States;
<bullet> Why they own/manage it;
<bullet> How they have used it; and
<bullet> How they intend to use it.
This information is used by policy analysts, foresters, educators,
and researchers to facilitate the planning and implementation of forest
policies and programs and provides landowners, managers, and the public
a better understanding of the social context of forests.
The Forest Service's direction and authority to conduct the NWOS is
from the Forest and Range Land Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974
and the Forest and Range Land Renewable Resources Act of 1978. These
acts assign responsibility for the inventory and assessment of forest
and related renewable resources to the Forest Service. Additionally,
the importance of an ownership survey in this inventory and assessment
process is highlighted in the 2014 Farm Bill, the Agricultural
Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998, and the
recommendations of the Second Blue Ribbon Panel on the Forest Inventory
and Analysis program (FIA).
Previous iterations of the NWOS were conducted in 1978, 1993, 2002-
2006, 2011-2013, 2017-2018, and 2019-2023. Approval for the current
iteration of the NWOS expires on March 31, 2025. Data collection for
the next iteration is slated for 2024-2028. In order to implement
changes and expansions made in the survey instruments for the entire
cycle, we are seeking approval of this revision in time for the start
of the cycle in 2024. If this revision is approved, the NWOS will be
permitted to complete the first three years of the 2024-2028 cycle and
will submit a renewal for completing the final two years of data
collection at the appropriate time.
Changes proposed for this revision include minor survey answer
choice formatting changes on all survey modules, a simplified large
corporate ownership survey, a new small corporate ownership survey, a
new tribal module, additional science modules, and additional question
choices on the state form. Information will be collected related to:
<bullet> The characteristics of the land holdings;
<bullet> Attitudes and perceptions of the owners and managers;
<bullet> Resource uses and management activities; and
<bullet> Where applicable, landowner demographics.
Separate survey instruments are being developed for different
target populations, including family forest ownerships, corporate and
other private forest ownerships, private forest ownerships on selected
U.S. affiliated protectorates and territories, residential urban
landowners, tribal lands, and public lands. For the families and
individuals, the dominant ownership group of forestland owners, a
subset of ownerships will be sent survey instruments addressing the
following topics, in addition to the core questions from the base
survey instrument:
<bullet> Afforestation
<bullet> Agroforestry
<bullet> Carbon
<bullet> Climate change
<bullet> Cross-boundary cooperation
<bullet> Decision making
<bullet> Energy (solar/wind)
<bullet> Heirs' properties
<bullet> Invasive species
<bullet> Land transfer
<bullet> Landowner values
<bullet> Sense of place
<bullet> Timber
<bullet> Wellbeing
<bullet> Wildfire
The NWOS provides widely cited benchmarks for the number, extent,
and characteristics of owners of forestland in the United States. These
results have been used to assess the sustainability of forest resources
at national, regional,
[[Page 78635]]
and state levels; to implement and assess forest-land owner assistance
programs; and to answer a variety of questions with topics ranging from
fragmentation to the economics of timber production. This is the only
effort to collect in-depth information about owners of forestland at
the national scale. It provides longitudinal data to track ownership
trends and allows for comparisons across regions of the country.
The respondents will be a statistically selected group of
individuals, families, partnerships, corporations, nonprofit
organizations and other private groups, tribal groups, and public
landowners that own forestland in the United States. A well
distributed, random set of sampling points has been established across
the country. At each point, remotely sensed data, such as aerial
photographs, will be used to identify forested points. For the forested
points, public records will be used to identify the owners of record
(i.e., the names and addresses of the landowners who will be
contacted). The target number of respondents for the base NWOS
implementation is 250 per state.
The NWOS will utilize a mixed-mode survey technique involving
cognitive interviews, focus groups, self-administered survey, and
telephone interviews. Cognitive interviews will be used to test
specific questions and explore new topics or populations of interest.
Focus groups will be used to provide more in-depth understanding of the
responses and to explore new areas of inquiry.
The implementation of the self-administered survey, which will
represent the majority of the responses, will involve up to four
contacts. First, a pre-notice postcard will be sent to all potential
respondents describing this information collection and why the
information is being collected. Second, a survey with a cover letter
and pre-paid return envelope will be sent to the potential respondents.
The cover letter will reiterate the purpose of this information
collection and provide the respondents with all legally required
information. Third, a reminder will be mailed to thank the respondents
and encourage the non-respondents to reply. Those who have yet to
respond will be sent a new survey, cover letter, and pre-paid return
envelope. Telephone interviews will be used for follow-up with non-
respondents. For corporations, the primary survey instrument will be
electronic, and for all other owners, the primary survey instrument
will be paper forms with the option for completing the survey
electronically online. We will use Participatory Action Research (PAR)
and cognitive interviews to explore tribal land ownerships.
Forest Service researchers will coordinate all components of this
information collection. Forest Service personnel with assistance
provided by cooperators at the Family Forest Research Center located at
the University of Massachusetts Amherst will conduct the mail portion
of the survey, cognitive interviews, focus groups, and telephone
follow-ups. Data will be compiled and edited by Forest Service and
Family Forest Research Center personnel. Forest Service researchers and
cooperators will analyze the collected data. National, regional, and
state-level results will be publicly available and electronically
distributed.
This information collection will generate scientifically based,
statistically-reliable, up-to-date information about the owners of
forestland in the United States. The results of these efforts will
provide more reliable information on this important and dynamic segment
of the United States population, thus facilitating more complete
assessments of the country's forestland resources and improved planning
and implementation of forestry programs on state, regional, and
national levels.
Affected Public: Individuals and households and the private sector
(businesses and non-profit organizations), tribes, and public entities.
Estimate of Burden per Response: 25 minutes for families,
individuals, and other private groups with small holdings; 30 minutes
for corporations with large holdings; 60 minutes for tribal entities,
and 15 minutes for public entities.
Estimated Annual Number of Respondents: 5,291.
Estimated Annual Number of Responses per Respondent: 1.
Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: 3,861 hours.
Comment is Invited: Comment is invited on: (1) whether this
collection of information is necessary for the stated purposes and the
proper performance of the functions of the Agency, including whether
the information will have practical or scientific utility; (2) the
accuracy of the Agency's estimate of the burden of the collection of
information, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions
used; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the
information to be collected; and (4) ways to minimize the burden of the
collection of information on respondents, including the use of
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection
techniques or other forms of information technology.
All comments received in response to this notice, including names
and addresses when provided, will be a matter of public record.
Comments will be summarized and included in the submission request
toward Office of Management and Budget approval.
Linda S. Heath,
Acting Deputy Chief, Research & Development.
[FR Doc. 2022-27891 Filed 12-21-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3411-15-P
</pre><script data-cfasync="false" src="/cdn-cgi/scripts/5c5dd728/cloudflare-static/email-decode.min.js"></script></body>
</html>Indexed from Federal Register on December 22, 2022.
This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.